Review: Motorola Droid

The Droid runs Android 2.0 — also called Eclair. This is a much more robust version of the Android platform that brings changes to nearly every system of the phone. Despite all the changes to the platform, the basic menu structure is the same as Android 1.0, 1.1, 1.5, and 1.6. That means you have three main home screens that can be used to store applications, shortcuts, widgets and other content. You access them by swiping to the left or to the right.

Motorola and Verizon have not elected to customize Android in any way, and MOTOBLUR, Motorola's social networking service, is not present at all.

The main menu is accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, kind of like a reverse window shade. This is where all the applications, widgets and anything you download from the Android Market wind up. If you download a lot, it starts to get intimidating. Thankfully, users can create folders and bundle their content to make this main menu easier to deal with.

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The menu key brings up a small menu box at the bottom of the screen for each application on the phone. The menu key is the easiest and best way to access the phone's settings and control menus. That's where all the nitty-gritty stuff is buried. One you're past the main menu itself, all the secondary menus remain the white text on a black background. No changes there. Android is such a young platform, that it is still very easy to figure out.